City leaders pledge to help shield neighbors from jet noise

Fight to stop F-35 moves to state, federal courts

Carmine Sargent moved to her home on Elizabeth St. in South Burlington in 1972.

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Carmine Sargent moved to her home on Elizabeth St. in South Burlington in 1972.

A day after the U.S. Air Force announced it would send a fleet of its cutting edge F-35 fighter jets to the Vermont Air National Guard, some living in neighborhoods surrounding the Burlington airport wondered about their futures.

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A panorama from the airport garage roof shows the proximity of established neighborhoods, right, to BTV flight operations.

A panorama from the airport garage roof shows the proximity of established neighborhoods, right, to BTV flight operations.

Or if the selection process had been rigged by political influence.

"I'm really disappointed in our congressional delegation," lamented Carmine Sargent, 70, who has lived with her daughter on Elizabeth Street for more than forty years. "It was all about money and power really and I obviously have neither of those things, I don't really count," she said.

Sargent opposed allowing the F-35 to land in Burlington after the Air Force confirmed the plant emits even more jet noise than the aging F-16 jets now flying here.

On Tuesday, the commander of the Vermont National Guard joined the state's political leadership to celebrate the Pentagon's decision to send 18 F-35 jets to Burlington.

Cray said the planes would arrive here at the end of the decade, and secure the 1,100 air guard jobs in Burlington for the next 30-40 years.

Opponents, who waged a multi-year effort to stop the F-35, vowed to press on with a legal fight in both state and federal court.

A lawyer for the Stop the F-35 Coalition said the group filed documents with a state court Monday to require ACT-250 environmental review before the new warplanes could land here.

The group also plans to file a lawsuit in federal court next month arguing the Air Force made its basing decision based on flawed, incomplete data which downplayed the true impact the F-35 will have on thousands of people living under the flight path.

Among local leaders, both Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and South Burlington City Council Chair Pam Mackenzie pushed hard to secure the F-35.

Immediately after the announcement, however, each promised to work harder to mitigate the noise impact.

"We have considerable work to do to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods," Weinberger told airmen Tuesday.

Two hundred homes near the airport are already slated for demolition under an FAA buyback program. But some residents say that only makes the noise problem worse, allowing it to travel further into their established moderate income neighborhoods.

George Maille, who moved to Logwod Street in 1977, says he now is lucky to get five hours of sleep at night because commercial planes depart earlier and land later than ever before.

He's battled the airport for years to do something about it. He says homes on his street are already difficult to sell.

What could be done?

Mackenzie suggests the possibility of four-story brick rowhouses - or even 'noise walls' near the runway to deflect sound back toward the planes and away from neighborhoods.

"The best science out there is the science we're going to use," Mackenzie said.

She said the first order of business was to try to get the different parties talking to each other, something she said is not happening now.